celebrate. decorate. create.

Tag Archives: create

Hi. I am excited to share this Documented Life Art Journal Page. It is the first spread in what was then my new art journal. The challenge was posted on January 1, 2015. I got to work immediately. I wasn’t thrilled with it when I finished it but 15 weeks later I like it very much. Time relaxes so many anxieties.

I used a tag I had created in 2014 (horror to be used in 2015) as an element in the layout. I liked the juxtaposition of layering a tag on top of a pocket that holds tags with my goals for this year. So far, I am doing okay with my goals. Some I have achieved others not so much. Luckily I have 37 weeks left.

Check out Art to the Fifth or Documented Life Project (DLP) to join the weekly art journal challenges. They have been great springboards into my creativity and art journaling.

It’s a Spring Banner! It’s “springy” without being cutsey which I love. I find it hard in my creating to stay away from cutsey. My kiddos are older and we no longer need cutsey for them so now I am stretching into being less cutsey. This banner is a great example of how project vision is often different from completion. And most times, for me anyway, the final product is better than the initial vision.

Hi. Happy Friday. It’s an art journal post. As you probably already know I am taking the Documented Life 2015 Project Video Challenge this year. I have really been enjoying the experience. I like the challenges and the wit in the prompts. As with anything else some weeks are better than others. This week was really fun. I have never zentangled but since the challenge was “borders” I was inspired by the idea of strong graphic black and white borders with a colorful interior. I added a piece of black cording as part of the border. I love the sneaky textural play. I also collaged a crepe paper rosette and a new sew fabric flower. I am pleased with this art journal page but gosh the border took an incredible amount of time. I work faster than the zentangle patterns allowed me to. I did however find a rhythm and found it relaxing.

The Documented Life Project (DLP) 2015 Borders Challenge. See my string added to the border along the right side.

What do You do with $2.00 and 20 minutes? There are a lot of zippy answers to that question I am sure but really I am a blogger all about celebrating, creating and decorating so my answer, “I upcycled some dollar store finds.”

I wish I had taken a still shot of the cheap looking nests. They were cute but they looked cheap and were too bright for my taste. When the boys were little I might have left them as is but I knew I could upcycle the eggs and nests in no time. This is an image of what they look like after a little paint and some German glass glitter.

So, I might have mentioned that I have a youTube channel. My son created it for me. I have a quick how-to video of this upcycle on it. I took dollar store Easter baskets and glass glittered the eggs and added some paint to soften the blue nest. It really is that simple. Spend two bucks. Take everything out of the nest. Paint the nest. German glass glitter the eggs. Once everything is dry reassemble the nests. I put mine on top of champagne colored glass candleholders in a seasonal vignette.

Yup! Here is a great April Fool’s. When my oldest was playing spring baseball during his kindergarten year it was my turn to bring the post game snack. It is supposed to be a healthy snack but since I am me and it was April Fool’s Day I decided to bring a snack that looked healthy but was actually not.

That plate of spaghetti covered in meatballs is really cupcakes smothered in piped frosting, strawberry jam, Ferraror Roche chocolates and white chocolate shavings. The idea (and in this case I darn near followed the instructions verbatim) was from Hello! Cupcake. Great idea! I am glad I was lucky enough to have the perfect excuse to have a little fun! Copy my copy of Hello Cupcake or check out the book for the exact recipe and directions.

Hi. Hey, I think I mentioned that I was going to share my burlap Easter banner that was published in Somerset Studios’: Holidays & Celebrations but I seem to have misplaced it. I took it to a creative event and can’t remember where I put it for safe keeping. Note to self, stop putting things in a “safe spot.” I have another great Easter Banner to share with you. It is a true Banner in a Blitz. It took no time at all.

In any case It’s getting to be that time, you know, the time to decorate your home with a few holiday pieces. To that end, I created this super fast, super easy glitter Easter egg banner. It can’t much simpler than this.

It took a sum total of 15 (maybe 20) minutes to make. First I purchased a sleeve of glittered Easter eggs from Target. The eggs cost $5 bucks. When I got home I strung skinny metallic gold ribbon through each egg. Then I glued the glitter eggs together to so they wouldn’t separate while hanging. Then I cut out flag shape or long triangle shape pastel scrapbook paper to use as the layering piece between the glitter eggs and the gold letters. I used metallic gold letters I purchased from Target at the same time I picked up the eggs. Of course, you may make this banner more elaborate if you would like by cutting and glittering your own letters or adding more layers between the eggs and the letters. But you can’t beat the impact of this banner.

Here the banner is hanging above my dining room table. I keep the star garland and the silver ball chain up almost all year and just add a seasonal banner to them. Sometimes this layered look works better than other times.

Easter eggs are a big tradition in our household. They were a big deal when I was a kid and they are a big deal now that I have kiddos. In fact, every Easter we have gotten together with family and neighbors and spent the evening decorating Easter eggs. It is a big ta-doo. We have decorated dozens and dozens of eggs. Each year we seem to decorate more and more. Some years the eggs are traditional Easter eggs with Paas dye, vinegar and some really muddy looking eggs. There always seems to be one or two that are left for the whole evening in the vinegar bath. Sometimes this effect is saturated and stunning and sometimes its just plain bright.

Some years we go a little crazy decorating and the eggs are little works of art (always a good thing). One year after the boys went to bed my girlfriend and I spent the rest of the night (and it turned into a late one) blowing eggs and creating little hats and ears for our blown eggs. Some of our creations were pretty incredible if I don’t say so myself. Below is a picture of Mr. & Mrs. Bunny. They were inspired by a crafty Easter book we were looking through. The Easter eggs were o’ so delicate but just plain darling. We loved them immediately. They took a lot of (pleasant) effort, some frustrated groans, some laughing… as you can see, the end product was well worth our time and the death of many broken eggs.

So after I made the Skull Shamrock piece and hung it on the wall I thought it would be great to create a companion piece. I thought a St. Patrick’s Day piece would be great. I could put the art up seasonally together and take them down together. I just wasn’t sure what the piece was going to be…another graphic piece…a shamrock? a favorite Irish proverb or saying? something witty? what?

Then as happens so often, the companion fell in my lap. My older boy was required to clean out his drawers as they were stuffed. He dumped a pile of t-shirts on my bed that were too small. Guess what was in that pile? A skull t-shirt. wow! yippee! so fun! Clearly we went through a phase (maybe we still are?) of skull t-shirts–must have been or is a trend. I am now addicted! I secretly am keeping my open for skull t-shirts that I can cut up and hang on my wall.

Here is the Shamrock Skull’s companion. Cool! If I can find another it will be a triptych. I will hang it for not only St. Patty’s Day but also Dia De Los Muertos. So fun!

When I think of tags I most often think of small pieces of art. I know that often I use tags to learn or teach a new technique or when I want to create a piece of art that, in theory, will be less time consuming than if I were creating a journal page, a canvas or a banner.

However in this case, I created a ginormous tag–okay maybe not ginormous, but the tag is 71/2 inches tall without the pretty green ribbon.

A while back, as in a few years ago, I purchased some ephemera in a packet that was backed with a cool tag with a scalloped top. I put the tag in my tag bin (yes I have a bin o’tags). For this project since it was St. Patrick’s Day and all about good fun I decided to alter the ginormous tag.

Tag to be altered

I was inspired by the lush, ubiquitous green fields of Ireland.

But then I decided I liked the back side of the tag better. It was more cohesive and the green glittered “IRISH” letters stood out better. I also transferred a magazine image of three “pints” of beer. I thought that was very appropriate.

If you haven’t transferred an image yet–fear not! It’s as easy as 1,2,3. First you locate and image and trim it up (or not); then you smear some gel medium ( I use Golden’s Gel Medium) onto the image. Then, you place the image, image side down onto the paper or in this case tag that you want to transfer the image to. Then you do something else for about an hour while you are waiting for the gel medium to dry and the transfer to take place. In this case I glittered letters.

Then as a final step you squirt water onto the gel medium and rub the paper away. I will do a time lapse video of such so that you can see it. Super easy. Super fun. You just need a little courage because even though it seems highly implausible, it will work.

After the beers transferred, I decided that the tag needed something different than I was planning. I liked the door knocker(which I acquired while shopping at the Rose Bowl Flea a few weeks back) at the top of the tag–Super cool–super tarnished brass piece fit perfectly under the scalloped edges of the top of the tag. I wanted to tie the brass into the tag more. So I added gold embossing. I had been working on Tim Holtz’s March 12 Tags of 2015 “enameled” tag and still had the embossing powder on my desk. So I stamped script over the entire tag and embossed it gold. I like the tie into the brass knocker and the idea of Leprechaun’s pots of gold.

Now what? I didn’t like the lettering laid out as planned. So I bunched it up and added a quick “posy” of stick pins. Covered the gluey part with a lovely brass shield and a bit of ribbon that matched the tie top ribbon. Glued down a green striped grosgrain ribbon and called it a focal point. I love the whole embellishment. Rich, stylish, silly and pretty (just how I like my men-j).

Now, that the letters were bunched up I had to decide how to finish the tag. I let the tag hang on my wall for a few days (sometimes quick art aint so quick). I was putting up my shamrock garland when I came across the perfect sized little shamrock. I attached it to the tag and called it done and done.

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Trish

I am a creative soul. I love to create. decorate & celebrate. I live in a small, quirky townhome on a teeny-tiny lake in an L.A. suburb with my little guys and my big guy and a goldfish named Lightening.